Sewage spill leaves little harm

The Gold Coast's largest sewage spill will cause no lasting environmental harm, though some wildlife was impacted.

Albert River being tested.

The Gold Coast’s worst environmental spill in history will cause no long-term environmental problems according to an independent study.

Up to 450 million litres of sewage spilled into the Albert River between 12 January and 12 April 2024 when a sewage pipe burst, and the City of Gold Coast did not notice.

The Queensland Department of Environment, Science and Innovation is still investigating the incident, but the City of Gold Coast has released a Griffith University report into the long-term impact of the spill

City of Gold Coast Acting chief executive officer Alisha Swain said the study found that the Albert River had recovered quickly.

“The advice we received at the time was that the significant flows were likely to have diluted the spill, delaying its detection and also lessening environmental impacts. It is a relief this is the case.” Ms Swain said.

“However, we know the low dissolved oxygen in the river as a result of the spill would have impacted immobile animals in the local vicinity. 

“We also know that there was a significant failure in our systems and we remain focused on implementing recommendations from the earlier independent investigation.”

Ms Swain said the City would continue to closely monitor the river and had already undertaken audits of the key infrastructure in the northern Gold Coast.

“We continue to cooperate with the State Government investigation into the spill and will continue to share all updates with our community via our website.”

The key findings of the Griffith University study were:

• Dissolved oxygen saturation levels were extremely low during the event but have recovered quickly to normal levels. It is likely immobile animals like molluscs were impacted. Fish would have moved away.

• Nutrient levels spiked but did not result in algal blooms. Levels have returned to normal.

• Nitrogen levels are normal.

• Metals found in the sediment were most likely due to long term accumulation, not the spill.

• The spill contained low concentration of PFAS chemicals and after dilution would have posed a low risk to the environment.

• Shore crabs collected from the lower Albert had higher levels of manganese. This is not conclusively linked to the spill due to multiple sources of contaminants in the Albert catchment, however, the low oxygen because of the spill may have increased the bioavailability of manganese.